by Chris Strauss, USA TODAY Sports

by Chris Strauss, USA TODAY Sports

As if Mark Sanchez's week couldn't get much worse, now the demoted New York Jets quarterback is having his work ethic questioned on national television by an ex-teammate.

Former Jets defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, who played with the team from 2008-2010, told Showtime's "Inside the NFL" that Sanchez's play has regressed since his rookie season because he's been more concerned with his off the field image than trying to get better.

"(Sanchez) had a stellar offensive line," Jenkins said on the show Wednesday night. "He had running backs that kept the pressure off of him. He had the opportunity to grow and develop. What Sanchez has to take responsibility for is during the time that he could have gotten better he wanted to sit back. He wanted to pose for magazines, worry about his haircuts and do all of that stuff."

"I'm just saying, from what I saw him do, it was a lot better then what it is now. But he coasted. They coddled him. That was what was going on. This is a man's profession. You have to man up at some point in time and take care."

This isn't the first time Jenkins, who now covers the team for SNY, has called out Sanchez this season. In November, Jenkins said on a Jets postgame show that there was "a point where I wished some defensive end would have knocked him (Sanchez) out of a game so they wouldn't have had a choice but to put somebody else in (at QB)."

Jenkins backtracked on those comments several days later, saying he wouldn't want to see anything happen to Sanchez in "an injury capacity." I wouldn't look for him to reverse course this time.